Retail isent going anyware. Just look at music we still have vinyl and CD's dont tell me people thought they woudent be gone by now.

Really? Last time I checked Vinyl was, if at all, sold in the back corner of really large music stores - and, incidently, music stores now tend to sell more DVDs than anything else. I can't remember the last time I saw a shop that just sold CDs. There's still not that much of a push for people to buy digital movies.

Anecdotal, but I don't know a single person who still buys CDs.

Game stores only sell games. That model will have to change as more and more consoles come out that are download only, and more and more customers find it easier to buy digital copies of games. Game stores will either branch into other areas, go down in flames, or somehow find a way to be profitable on hardware sales.

What do you think? Seems the industry is slowly moving in that direction...

Long story short? Yes.

It's not just the way the market wants to move. It's an intersection between market forces and technology. Broadband is a reality for the vast majority of video game players. Storage is cheap. Game consoles have these features built-in. Combined with the popularity of the used game market + the success of Apple's mobile device, downloadable games are the future.

There will come a day when cartridges and game discs will look just as antiquated as VHS looks today. (Shout out to all those who see DVD as just as antiquated. And not because you have a Bluray player. )

no. period. onlive cannot even be dignified as a fad. it will fail most non-triumphantly. and i will be glad. don't get me wrong, i love WiiWare, and i think it has an important place in the industry. but things of that nature will NEVER dominate.

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The problem with the Wii's digital distribution is that it can't be taken to a friends house like a physical game can.You have to unhook your Wii if you want to take it to a friends house or lend the entire Wii to a friend if they want to try the game at their house.

Another problem is that you can't sell/trade it like a physical game.

If there was more flexibility with the digital distribution and high speed Internet everywhere that who knows it could eventually replace physical distribution.

no. period. onlive cannot even be dignified as a fad. it will fail most non-triumphantly. and i will be glad. don't get me wrong, i love WiiWare, and i think it has an important place in the industry. but things of that nature will NEVER dominate.

I would love to see your in depth analysis about why that's the case. Because in reality everything about the market points in the exact opposite direction.

[quote]Same here, but I don't see why we can't have both. Like you said, both are great. I don't see why one has to be the winner.[/QUOTE]

There will eventually be a winner, I think, simply because it's impossible for two competitive formats to survive side-by-side. One inevitably wins (Beta vs Tape, HDDVD Vs Blu Ray, CD vs Cassette/ minidisc)

There will eventually be a winner, I think, simply because it's impossible for two competitive formats to survive side-by-side. One inevitably wins (Beta vs Tape, HDDVD Vs Blu Ray, CD vs Cassette/ minidisc)

Are they competitive though? Not everyone has online capability and I don't think every gamer will ever be online. I would just like to see a digital distributed copy and physical copies of every game instead of minimal choices.

I hope so, but it probably won’t happen for about a decade or more since a lot of people don't have high-speed connection, or even an internet connection at all.

For me, I just don't see the appeal with a physical copy over a digital copy. With digital copies, you can play your games nearly instantly with one press of a button, they load faster, it can be cheaper to buy, infinite amount of copies, and it doesn't use up any space in your house. I see it as the future for video games, and all other media out there. I hope something like Onlive makes it happen. This is all my opinion of course.

no. period. onlive cannot even be dignified as a fad. it will fail most non-triumphantly. and i will be glad. don't get me wrong, i love WiiWare, and i think it has an important place in the industry. but things of that nature will NEVER dominate.

Umm... How is Onlive a fad, and how is it considered a failure when it hasn't even been released yet? I see Onlive as the next big thing as the invention of the internet and videogames. I have been hoping for something like this since I was introduced to digital downloads. I just don't see why people resent this so much.

As much as I'll miss physical copies of games, you can just see the digital distribution of all media becoming more prevalent and accepted. While we're a ways away from total digital distribution, you can see it coming. It's cheaper for publishers and even allows a lot of developers to publish their own games that normally could not afford to do so.

I'm curious to see how Sony's PSPgo does given its complete dependency on digital releases. Should be a good experiment.

It's definitely the wave of the future. I think it will be a while before enough homes have broadband that's fast enough to make it worthwhile to download titles of the size retail releases are now. I definitely think it's only a matter of time before it happens. PSPGo is probably going to be very niche though. My prediction would be that not the next generation of home consoles, (assuming it starts in 2011/2012ish), but the generation after that will be download only. I think you'll be seeing a lot of downloadable releases next gen that could have been legitimate retail releases this generation though.

As much as I'll miss physical copies of games, you can just see the digital distribution of all media becoming more prevalent and accepted. While we're a ways away from total digital distribution, you can see it coming. It's cheaper for publishers and even allows a lot of developers to publish their own games that normally could not afford to do so.

I'm curious to see how Sony's PSPgo does given its complete dependency on digital releases. Should be a good experiment.

I agree with all of this.

RE: the PSPgo, there's a news story just out that the major Dutch games retailer (name escapes me now) refuses to sell it. Retail not threatened by download-only consoles? Yeah, right.

I can't imagine that a single store's refusal to sell a console does much damage...in this age of online shopping, you type in the name of something and click the cheapest price--if there's one less price in the middle of that list it doesn't affect much.